


Postcards

by eleanor_lavish, thepsychicclam



Series: Valiant Effort [10]
Category: Lord of the Rings RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Rock Band, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-07-18
Updated: 2009-07-18
Packaged: 2017-11-28 03:41:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/669868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eleanor_lavish/pseuds/eleanor_lavish, https://archiveofourown.org/users/thepsychicclam/pseuds/thepsychicclam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Orlando gets a postcard from home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Postcards

**Author's Note:**

> Written by Clammy.

Dom handed Orlando the postcard. Orlando glanced at it uninterested before throwing it in the trash bin. He didn’t care that his parents were sailing around the Greek islands on a private yacht and that his mother missed him and his father still hated him. That was all a lifetime ago.

Orlando hated his family. His father was a rich, snobby asshole who only spoke to people of certain social standing, and his mother wore pearls to breakfast and lived off brandy. After years at the right schools and thousands of dollars wasted on his proper upbringing, Orlando packed his bags and left.

His father was convinced that Orlando was going through a phase by moving to Manchester. Just needed to go and be a young crazy man before coming back home and taking over the family estate. Acting was just something to pass the time, and besides, the theatre was very posh and acceptable. All of this would be over in a few months, a year tops.

But Orlando didn’t plan to return home. He met Dom and they started living together while haphazardly trying to make a living from a play maybe every two months. It just didn’t work. Orlando found that he had to do the inevitable, the worst thing ever. He had to crawl home.

Dom by his side, Orlando booked a train ticket to Canterbury. Dom had nowhere else to go, so Orlando didn’t feel bad about bringing him along. Besides, Dom had quickly become Orlando’s best friend and he needed someone there when he went groveling in front of his father. The train ride was long and Orlando became more and more nervous the closer he came. He avoided Dom’s curious stares and attempted futilely not to turn into the old Orlando. It didn’t work.

When Orlando was in school, he was the hotshot. People followed him around, wanted to be his friend, wanted to be his lover, and would do anything he asked. If he didn’t like someone, then it was equal to social suicide for them. When someone got into his inner circle, they were automatically among the most popular people. And Orlando loved every minute of it.

Because at home, things were different. No one loved him or coveted him. He wasn’t a hotshot. He was a disappointment, a pansy ass of a son who would never amount to anything. His father hated him for not being what he wanted him to be. Orlando tried to please his father. But there was no pleasing him. Not even his mother, with her brandy glass in hand, could do anything right which caused her to end up thrown across the room and bleeding, brandy glass broken beside her. A few times Orlando got the violent end of an argument, but never received anything more serious than a bruised rib or arm. His mother always got what he deserved.

Even though Orlando was the confident popular kid in school, inside he was a wreck. When he was alone, he shook constantly at the realization that this was it and life never got better. So, he took what he could and never thought twice about it. By the time he graduated from his overpriced prep school, he’d shagged just about everyone and loved no one.

As the train drew closer to his hometown, Orlando started trembling and grew more withdrawn. Dom attempted to talk to him a few times, but he didn’t want to talk and just told Dom he was fine. He wasn’t.

His mother showered him with kisses and his father glared at him. And Dom was like a pest that wouldn’t go away. Over dinner, Orlando told his parents about acting and Manchester while gripping a wine glass in trembling hands. They were less than impressed. But his father was convinced Dom would be on the early train out of the house and Orlando would return to the family and be respectable.

Then he saw the tattoos. Orlando was in the bathroom washing his face shirtless. His father stormed in, grabbed him and jerked him around as he looked at the tattoos. A sun on his stomach, a green dragon on his right upper arm, a Chinese symbol for “faith” on his left shoulder, a cross on his inner left forearm, and a druid inside his right forearm with a small sword at his wrist . Then it was all a blur of yelling and struggling. The next thing Orlando remembered was lying on the bathroom floor as Dom tried to help him up. And the promise to get laser surgery as soon as possible to remove them. Later in the night, Orlando and Dom snuck out of the house, went down to the ATM to clear out Orlando’s account, and left. And that was the last time Orlando saw his parents.

Then Orlando met Billy and his life changed. He was in a band, had friends, felt like he was appreciated. Not the superficial appreciation that came with being popular in prep school. No, the real kind. And no one had ever treated him like Billy treated him. Billy acted like Orlando was a real person, with real feelings. He knew that Dom felt the same way about him, but this was more. There was something other than genuine friendship there. Orlando didn’t know what it was, but he never wanted to lose it. Billy asked him for his opinion on things and actually cared what he said, didn’t make him feel stupid or idiotic for his thoughts on things. Billy was everything Orlando had never known from anyone else, and he fell head over heels in love for the first time. Billy did everything, even helped take care of him when he was sick, and when he fell, Orlando thought he would lose it all. But Billy was there beside him, and Orlando walked out of there good as new because he was not going to let Billy lose someone else close to him.

Orlando’s money lasted the band for awhile. But soon there was hardly any and all that Orlando had left of his family’s money bought Billy, Dom, and himself airfare over to America and set them up in their apartment. Then it was gone and Orlando had to work for the first time in his life. With his first paycheck he got another tattoo just in silent defiance of his father. The sign for Capricorn on his right calf. He knew it wasn’t a very large tattoo, but it was enough to sate him.

Orlando didn’t regret any of it. He didn’t regret leaving a life of money and alcohol and abuse behind for one of poverty and music and brotherhood. He was poor as dirt, but none of that mattered as long as he had Billy, Dom, and Elijah and his guitar in his fingers.

~Fin  



End file.
